Is it worth it?

[Rookie1986]

Hey Guys,

It's been a while since I've been on here but I'm still in the market for a new rig to replace my almost 4 year old gaming system. Recently the new Alienware x51 caught my eye and I was just wanting to know if it was actually worth buying one or not? The one I've been looking at is the top spec setup with the blu-ray drive and it comes in at about £1039 delivered. How much would it cost me to build a like-for-like system and would I be saving enough money to actually make it worh it?

Hope you guys are able to help me with making my decision, thanks.
/Rookie

[dfour]

Well the so called 'gamiing system' only packs a OEM gtx 555 with 288 cores

http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs...specifications

Which is between a 550ti at 192 cores and the 560 non ti at 336 cores so no real gaming horse power and wastes money on a 2600K .

You could probably do better yourself but you wont have any warranty. maybe check out scan 3xs systems in the same price range

[kalniel]

We can't answer worth for you - if you have a need for the particular small form factor that is the unique selling point of the x51 then yes, it's worth it. If you don't have a need for it and can consider normal desktops then it's probably not worth it, in that you can buy a desktop system that will be better for gaming, for less. Chillblast make pretty good systems, as do ScanXS or even Dell/Alienware desktops. Then you can build you own, which may save you money if you can't easily configure one of the above to match your requirements.

eg:

http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast...dition-PC.html

Cooler Master HAF X
Intel Core i5 2500K Processor overclocked to 4.5GHz
Corsair A70 CPU Cooler
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
GeForce GTX 560-Ti 1GB Graphics Card
8GB PC3-10666 DDR3 Memory
1000GB SATA 7200rpm Hard Disk (OS)
24x Sony DVD-RW Drive
600watt Corsair CX600 PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM

[Pete301]

:O it's not even a 2600k, just a 2600. So it means no overclocking. On the face of it that Alienware desktop doesn't look optimised for gaming. The core i5 2500k seems to be the choice for gaming, there isn't really a significant improvement gamewise from that to the core i7, and it is ~£80 cheaper.

I'm guessing a decent gaming build would be about £700-£800, off the top of my head.

[dfour]

We can't answer worth for you - if you have a need for the particular small form factor that is the unique selling point of the x51 then yes, it's worth it. If you don't have a need for it and can consider normal desktops then it's probably not worth it, in that you can buy a desktop system that will be better for gaming, for less. Chillblast make pretty good systems, as do ScanXS or even Dell/Alienware desktops. Then you can build you own, which may save you money if you can't easily configure one of the above to match your requirements.

eg:

http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast...dition-PC.html

Thats a good rig for just under £1000 but I would upgrade the cheap memory to the corsair pc3-12800 1600mhz stuff fo an extra £19 for a total of £981:60. I do think some of there upgrade prices are a bit high though.

For £1010:72 you can get the scan 3XS Z68 Performance GTK2 with a 60 gig SSD which is one of the best upgrades you can make to a system with only a 500 gig back up drive. You also get a free pair of corsair headphones with the system.

[krazy_olie]

As pure components go it's a bit expensive but when you factor in the nice form factor, support etc it's not bad, although the 1:1 dollar to pound pricing they've used puts a big dent in the value.

The anandtech review show the 555 to pack a decent punch and any current game or in the near future will play absolutely fine on it, unless you start wanting to play the most extreme settings and/or on multiple monitors.

The 2600 could be overkill, the i5 would probably be fine and would save some cash as you'll be bottlenecked by the gpu before the cpu anyway. I wouldn't worry about overclocking the cpu , or rather the inability to do it, you wouldn't want to introduce more heat in to such a small space and real world benefit is small.

I'd only really consider it if you want the convenience of a small form factor (it really can save a lot of room), if you have no issue with a full or midi tower the scan value systems or chillblast, or possibly even a dell xps would be better value.

£90 for a blu ray seems a bit steep too :/.